Zennie62 on YouTube

Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton got into a lot of trouble for posting a photo that he later claimed he did not post showing superstar singer Miley Cyrus in a blowing white dress that blew up a little too high in defiance of her best efforts to control it.

Perez Hilton, put the photo up for view via a Twitter link, then took it down after a hue and cry from the Internet grew rapidly. The problem is Perez Hilton broke a rule that you don't show sexually revealing photos of a minor. Miley Cyrus is 17 years old, which, even if she's a mega star, puts her in minor status.

While Miley Cyrus and her parents Billy Ray Cyrus and Tish Cyrus say they will not press charges, Perez Hilton's actions caused ABC to drop ads for The View tv show from his blog at PerezHilton.com. What Perez either did not know, or forgot was that it's one thing to show Miley Cyrus doing something sexually suggestive fully clothed, it's way out of bounds to show her in a state that goes too far. Miley wasn't doing anything in the way of performing a "pole dance" or grind dancing with Adam Shankman as reported here:

PerezHilton's blog is worth so much money, a reported $20 million, you'd think he doesn't need to stoop to such actions as the Miley Cyrus dress stunt, but he did it.

When I learned that teen star and Twitter mogul Miley Cyrus had literally done a number on a stripper pole at the Teen Choice Awards Monday night, two thoughts entered my mind: first, who convinced the 16 year old to do it, second, does this mean a sex tape's in her future too. I say and write that because I learned she and her father Billy Ray Cyrus came up with the dance production idea. So if her dad's cool with his daughter dancing around that pole at her age, the sky's the limit, right? More at: http://www.pollsb.com/polls/p2137290-think_miley_cyrus_stripper_pole_dance_teen_choice

When I learned that teen star and Twitter mogul Miley Cyrus had literally done a number on a stripper pole at the Teen Choice Awards Monday night, two thoughts entered my mind: first, who convinced the 16 year old to do it, second, does this mean a sex tape's in her future too. I say and write that because I learned she and her father Billy Ray Cyrus came up with the dance production idea. So if her dad's cool with his daughter dancing around that pole at her age, the sky's the limit, right?

Miley Cirus and pole at Teen Choice Awards

Look at how much buzz this act has created for her. In an era where the next ultimate media-based tease is right around the corner, drawing all of us to some news or celebrity website, here's Miley picking up traffic from searches for "stripper pole" in addition to those terms that are to be expected like "Teen Choice Awards". But unless you doubt Miley's turned the corner and so in the moment of what she's doing she's either got no idea of how far she's come or has every idea of how far she's come, she invoked the name of that ever-loving past queen of the flash no-panties shot, Britany Spears in her Twitter updates when she tweeted...

For all the people calling me the "next Britney" THANK U. I couldn't ask for a better compliment :)

Now, with those short shorts, boots and moves, Cyrus did stake her claim as the next Britney, which is why I openly wonder how far she's going to take this over the next 10 years? Moreover, as Miley's seen as teen influencer, what does this say for the trend in the overall habits of teenage women today? Have we so desensitized sex that we should expect to see teen women taking pole dancing courses as a substitute for physical ed? And if that's the case, are we preping them for future employment as strippers?

What's going on here?

I feel like I'm walking a tightrope between being a schoolmarm who wants to take the spiked punchbowl away and a modern member of our media-driven society who likes that someone like Miley keeps pushing the edges of taste and sensibility. But to what degree and when does it stop? The whole hyper exposure movement has placed extreme pressure on our culture's ability to accept and reject sexually suggestive actions such that we have Miley doing things on camera before millions that she would have gotten kicked out of school for doing before a small class of people at a dance-off.

Does that make any sense at all?

All I ask is how far are we taking this and is it ok? So, I ask you now in my poll:

Now, me? Ok, I had little problem with Miley's act, I'm just concerned she's going the sex tape route to megastardome. What say you? Or maybe you're the type that just doesn't care and wants Rome to burn as long as you get your work done and you're not impacted. Or perhaps you want Mileu to apologize for the act? Whatever the case, share your view. One thing's clear, Miley started the Tuesday after her show with not a care in the world, tweeting...

Good morning people! Doo da friggen doo LIFE IS SO GOOD :) I laughed so hard I literally threw up! Hahahahhahahahahaha34 minutes ago from UberTwitter

Miley Cyrus has been sexually exploited by her father, Billy Ray (one-hit-wonder) Silas for before she reached puberty. The Vanity Fair pictures﻿ were a national disgrace, yet her career continues to be supported by Disney, one of America's premier entertainment corporations.

The huge Media conglomerates of the World are merely concerned with inducing the masses to part with their escapist dollars and cents, nothing more.
Our moral decline as a society means nothing to them.

In the story that will not die, we now learn that John Edwards, the former North Carolina Senator and VP running mate to John Kerry, now reportedly has a sex tape. According to Rush & Molloy, the gossip columnists of the New York Daily News, Edwards former aide Andrew Young just finished a book proposal that described first, that he is not the father of the child of Rielle Hunter, John Edwards mistress, second, that Young just happened to see a sexually-explicit videotape as he was unpacking after moving to California from the East Coast, where he lived with Rielle Hunter, Edwards' mistress, and Young's wife and family.

The story is known by now: in August of 2008, after the heat of the Democratic Primary had cleared and just before the Democratic National Convention, former Senator Edwards admitted he cheated on his wife Elizabeth starting in 2006, while she was battling breast cancer. The scandal was originally reported by the Enquirer as far back as November of 2007, and just a few blogs, including Zennie62, then called "Zennie's Zeitgeist" followed it.

Rielle Hunter was an amateur film-maker Edwards befriended in New York City in 2006, but the friendship turned into two things: a $200,000 video job for Hunter and an affair for Edwards. Then - aide Andrew Young told the media - or those new media types paying attention - that he was the person who had the affair with Hunter and evntually got her pregnant.

This video I created gives you a look at what Rielle Hunter did for Edwards on the campaign trail:

Now Young's changing his story, claiming there's a sex tape and he has it, stating that he's not the father of Hunter's child and that Edwards is, and throwing Edwards so far under the bus he's going to be ran over by it and have skid marks on his back.

Yikes.

The question is why, after all this time, would Andrew Young do this to his former boss? Loyalty can last forever, can't it? According to the Huffington Post, Young feels "betrayed" by the "once-friendly" Edwards family. That turnabout may have come at the hands of Elizabeth Edwards, as the NY Daily News claims it was she who blamed Young for being an "enabler" of Edwards affair with Hunter, even to the point of arranging cell phone calls between Edwards and Hunter. Reportedly, Ms. Edwards threatened to leak information about Young's criminal past.

Yikes.

And The Enquirer, which rose from tabloid obscurity to gain mainstream media attention by breaking this story, reports that Young expressed displeasure with Edwards after he visited Hunter just after the child was born last year. Then, just after Edwards admitted his affair in August of 2008, Fox News ran a post presenting Young's unfortunate past of arrests. Young, with his image damaged, felt backed into a corner and like any wounded animal, struck back with this new story. The real story.

(Some websites, like the Enquirer claim the story of Young's past came up in The Daily Beast, but that's not true. It was Fox News.)

That the Edwards matter has degenerated to this point is sad to say the least. A once-promising man and family have essentially reduced themselves to the point of slinging mud at former friends and vice versa and who knows who else is next, given that Elizabeth Edwards is writing a book too.

From textinsf on YouTube who writes: Sponsored by: http://bit.ly/wC5B Tron Legacy is a 3D high-tech adventure set in a digital world that's unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. Sam Flynn (Hedlund), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (Bridges), looks into his father's disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of fierce programs and gladiatorial games where his father has been living for 25 years. Along with Kevin's loyal confidant (Olivia Wilde), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous.Sponsored by: http://bit.ly/wC5B

One of the highlights of the Michael Jackson Memorial is an amazing speech given by the Rev. Al Sharpton. Sharpton's always a lighting rod for criticism for his "tell-it-like-it-is" style, and he presented it at the memorial. Sharpton gave one of the best speeches I've ever heard because it cut deep to the core reasons why many people love and defend Michael Jackson and for another reason: Jackson represents the growth of mainstream American Culture, where people paid less attention race and more attention to what they liked regardless of the skin color of the person who made what they liked.

Sharpton walked up and delivered an old-fashioned unplanned stump stemwinder speech. The kind I'd expect to hear from him in church. Here's the transcript of Sharpton's masterpiece presented by Seattlemedium.com:

All over the world today people are gathered in love viduals to celebrate the life of a man that taught the world how to love.

People may be wondering why there’s such an emotional outburst. But you would have to understand the journey of Michael to understand what he meant to all of us. For these that sit here as the Jackson family - a mother and father with nine children that rose from a working class family in Gary, Indiana - they had nothing but a dream.

No one believed in those days that this kind of dream could come true, but they kept on believing and Michael never let the world turn him around from his dreams. I first met Michael around the 1970 Black Expo, Chicago, Illinois. Rev. Jesse Jackson, who stood by this family till now, and from that day as a cute kid to this moment, he never gave up dreaming. It was that dream that changed culture all over the world. When Michael started, it was a different world. But because Michael kept going, because he didn’t accept limitations, because he refused to let people decide his boundaries, he opened up the whole world.

In the music world, he put on one glove, pulled his pants up and broke down the color curtain where now our videos are shown and magazines put us on the cover. It was Michael Jackson that brought Blacks and Whites and Asians and Latinos together. It was Michael Jackson that made us sing, “We are the World” and feed the hungry long before Live Aid.

Because Michael Jackson kept going, he created a comfort level where people that felt they were separate became interconnected with his music. And it was that comfort level that kids from Japan and Ghana and France and Iowa and Pennsylvania got comfortable enough with each other until later it wasn’t strange to us to watch Oprah on television. It wasn’t strange to watch Tiger Woods golf. Those young kids grew up from being teenage, comfortable fans of Michael to being 40 years old and being comfortable to vote for a person of color to be the President of the United States of America.

Michael did that. Michael made us love each other. Michael taught us to stand with each other. There are those that like to dig around mess. But millions around the world, we’re going to uphold his message. It’s not about mess, but it’s about his love message. As you climb up steep mountains, sometimes you scar your knee; sometimes you break your skin. But don’t focus on the scars, focus on the journey. Michael beat ‘em, Michael rose to the top. He out-sang his cynics, he out-danced his doubters; he out-performed the pessimists. Every time he got knocked down, he got back up. Every time you counted him out, he came back in. Michael never stopped. Michael never stopped. Michael never stopped.

I want to say to Mrs. Jackson and Joe Jackson, his sisters and brothers: We thank you for giving us someone that taught us love; someone who taught us hope. We want to thank you because we know it was your dream too.

We know that your heart is broken. I know you have some comfort from the letter from the President of the United States and Nelson Mandela. But this was your child. This was your brother. This was your brother. This was your cousin. Nothing will fill your hearts’ lost. But I hope the love that people are showing will make you know he didn’t live in vain. I want his three children to know: Wasn’t nothing strange about your Daddy. It was strange what your Daddy had to deal with. But he dealt with it…He dealt with it anyway. He dealt with it for us.

So, some came today, Mrs. Jackson, to say goodbye to Michael. I came to say, thank you. Thank you because you never stopped, thank you because you never gave up, thank you because you never gave out, thank you because you tore down our divisions. Thank you because you eradicated barriers. Thank you because you gave us hope. Thank you Michael. Thank you Michael. Thank you Michael!

Fox News Bill O'Reilly said Sharpton's speech was racist, but that's certainly not the dumbest thing I've ever heard O'Reilly say - his crack about not knowing "Black restaurants" could be nice places to go to takes the prize - but it's close.

The bottom line is Michael Jackson did change American Culture. Think about it. He became a singing star just four years after the passage of The Civil Rights Amendment in 1964 and continued to produce hit after hit to his death, all the time gaining fans around the World who didn't care what color his skin was; they just liked his music and him. That's powerful, and all the more so when one considers the racial problems we've seen and experienced. It's really gotten better and Jackson deserves a lot of credit for that.

Conservatives can't deal with anyone telling the truth about race relations, but they'd better start because it's their inability to understand how race relations have changed that has doomed the political future of conservatives and of the GOP.

A political party historically based on hating a racial group - as was true for the GOP for decades - can't survive when people of different colors are mating as one. Causing that in a small way is but one of Michael Jackson's gifts to society. If it's hard for you to deal with that fact, one of the "hard facts that create America" as President Lincoln would say, you're not American at all because you don't get your own country.

Ok. Actor Hugh Jackman, before he ran around in the buff in Wolverine, was the host of this year's Academy Awards ceremonies. But would you believe he wasn't even a member of the Academy? Well, that changed today. Jackman, actor James Franco from the Spiderman movie series, and 134 others were announced as new members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in a press release emailed to me today.

According to the Academy, the limit of new memberships extended is 166, but as has been the case in past years, the membership committees extended fewer invitations to become members than the limit. What's interesting to me is that one has to be invited to become a member - I assumed that came with being in the Screen Actors Guild or other movie union organizations.

It explains to a degree why the Academy seems so conservative in its movie award choices: it has a membership that is older than that for the Guild because, according to Academy President Sid Ganis “These filmmakers have, over the course of their careers, captured the imagination of audiences around the world", which generally means they've been around for a while. There are exceptions, however, the best one being Dakota Fanning, who was invited in 2006 when she was just 12 years old. But look at the body of Fanning's work: movies like Man on Fire, War of the Worlds, Charlotte's Web, and Push, to name a few. By contrast, well-known names like Jackman, Franco, Casey Affleck, and Anne Hathaway were just invited to become members this year.

The full list of new members, sent to me by the Academy, is below. It includes not just actors, but animators, art directors, cinematographers, costume designers , directors, documentary producers, executives, film editors, live action short film makers, makeup artists and hairstylists, producers, production designers, public relations specialists, set decorators, sound experts, visual effects masters, scenic artists and writers.

Interesting how writers were the last to be listed. Oh well.

There are notables names in that area, too. One that sticks out is Paula Wagner, who teamed with Tom Cruise to make the Mission Impossible movie series. And under "Director" there's Tyler Perry. But what's interesting is how we can see the "Hollywood pecking order": if you're in this membership group, your an elite person in the business. Here's the list of new Academy members for 2009:

Michael Jackson's passing is still a shock to me. The very idea that someone I feel like I grew up with left us at the age of 50 is just not right at all. I first saw Michael perform when I was 10 years old at the old Chicago International Amphitheatre in 1972; the Campbell family, who babysat me, took me and I remember it like it was yesterday. The Jackson Five was then the must see event and Michael was the star.

Michael was like my brother. In a way for many African Americans he was just that, a sibling. I knew him as the guy who grew up in Gary, Indiana. We knew people who knew them in Chicago, so I felt close to him long ago. I think it's for that reason so many African Americans were on Michael's side during the years when it seems he was kind of flying the coup: changing his skin color from brown to near white; narrowing his nose, and basically seeming to channel his best friend the legendary singer Diana Ross. Then, of course, there were the claims that he "liked boys" which we figured wasn't the case, and was more a byproduct of the money and attention seeking people who surrounded him. Michael was a person with an arrested development: he never had a childhood so to escape the trappings of a constant adult life, he created a childhood for himself.

I think being an adult just literally killed Michael.

For me, Michael Jackson was the person who wanted to bring us all together, as shown in his "We Are The World" effort. That amazing production and song, created with a group of the World's best known music talents, with Lionel Richie, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, Steve Perry, Bob Dylan, the late Ray Charles, and a host of others and to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia, was just amazing. Amazing. I loved that song then; I still do today and I cry every time I hear it. (the lyrics and video are at the end of this post).

Talking with people About Michael's passing

The death of Michael Jackson is one of those events that will cause you to remember where you were when you learned of it. In my case I'd just emerged from a private movie screening at the Saul Zaentz Film Center in West Berkeley, CA. My Mom just happened to call with the news as I was walking to my car; I was stunned. Just stunned. So I took my Flip Video Camera and set out to talk to people about what happened to Michael. I had plenty of places to do this: the BART train station, the San Francisco Magazine "Best of The Bay" party, and all points in between.

What's amazing is the sheer number of people who were immediately informed via text messages and the reactions: shock, sadness, but not joy. No. No one expressed anything close to that at all, even given the part of his life where it seemed he was overwhelmed with "kid" issues. Nothing.

Dominic Phillips, the master of event planning in San Francisco, and who produced last night's "San Francisco Magazine Best of The Bay" party said "It's horrible. First and formost, anybody dying is horrible. There are so many family members that are just gonna be torn apart. But also Michael Jackson; on the one hand he was a very maverick person. But on the other hand he was part of my generation's life. He was like part of my experience, my growing up and I feel a little robbed that he's not there anymore. Like whether you thought his experience was your experience,that doesn't really come into it for me. I just sort of bonded with him in my youth and now he's gone."

Another woman I talked to on Howard Street in San Francisco said "I was just walking and three people got text messages (that he died)...just terrible. My friend Beth Schnitzer, who's the Director of Sponsorship Marketing at Pier 39 said "I can't believe it. Every time I listen to his music, it brings back a great memory from growing up somehow, some way. You know, it really hasn't hit me. He was too young; way too young." Jerusha, "The Last Single Girl In The World" said, as only she can, "We all have to go sometime and boy did he have a fabulous life before he went. He did it up and he did it up right. You know what they say, you only live once and that's all you need if you do it right!"

I talked to a lot of people, and if you see my video there are more than what's presented here, but all just variations on what was expressed. People loved Michael, warts and all. The "Best of The Bay" event turned into a kind of tribute to Michael, with his music playing continuously through the evening, and people danced, especially to "Thriller" which is a modern classic.

Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, produced by Quincy Jones.

There comes a time
When we head a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
And it's time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all

We can't go on
Pretending day by day
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change
We are all a part of
God's great big family
And the truth, you know love is all we need

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

Send them your heart
So they'll know that someone cares
And their lives will be stronger and free
As God has shown us by turning stone to bread
So we all must lend a helping hand

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

When you're down and out
There seems no hope at all
But if you just believe
There's no way we can fall
Well, well, well, well, let us realize
That a change will only come
When we stand together as one

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

On Monday morning the famous blogger went to an after-party (who came up with that term?) to celebrate the winners of the MuchMusic Awards in Toronto, Canada. But Hilton has a history of insulting celebrities and one of them, Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas, has been his favorite to criticize, even though they're reportedly friends. Here's an example of what Hilton's written about Fergie:

Oh, Fugly!

Why??????

The usually sometimes fashionably dressed singer was spotted in London with the Black Eyed Peas attending a BBC Radio One interview.

And it was nice to see Fergie wasn't a total diva and even took time to sign autographs for her fans.

She was sporting a "unique"-looking braided ponytail. The 34-year-old also opted to wear some futuristic, mirror-inspired sunglasses.

There are other pages on Hilton's site that are filled with not-so-flattering comments about Fergie. So it's understandable that Fergie would approach Hilton at the first party at one club and which led to Wil.I.Am approaching Hilton at another venue, the Cobra nightclub early Monday morning. Hilton called the rapper a variation of the "F-word" that has the Gay Community upset with him.

Polo Molina, the band's tour manager would eventually punch Hilton outside the club.

@iamtherealwill There are multiple witnesses. You can deny all you want. The truth is the truth and I am telling the truth.

I wonder who Hilton expects to step forward to take up for him, even with Molina's surrender to police. From this it's clear Hilton's on his own here; Lady Gaga's not issuing any kind of statement to indicate she was a witness to the matter. And given Hilton's actions, captured and presented on video by TMZ.com, Molina could claim he was acting to defend a friend who was being attacked by Hilton; that friend would be Wil.I.Am.

We have in the video above, both sides of the story: Wil.I.Am's video posted this morning and Perez "meltdown" video posted around noon Pacific Standard Time. Both videos explain what happened, with one main difference: Wil.I.Am said "a fan" "got into Perez' face" and Hilton said it was Molina who hit him in his video.

But Perez Hiton Twittered that Wil.I.Am struck him, which is completely false. I suppose Molina's turning himself in to the Toronto Police makes the matter moot, but pointing a finger at Wil.I.Am for the purpose of gaining more attention to the story is really pathetic. And even more so is Hilton's total meltdown in his video, which you can see above.

Perez Hilton's meltdown may signal the end of ambush journalism

As the video plays, Hilton first speaks calmly if angrily, but toward the end starts crying and yelling, saying some really vile things about Fergie and The Black Eyed Peas; a performance which essentially confirms their claims that he has something against them. Hilton's performance has done little to win him fans on Twitter or anywhere else. Shockingly, a small percentage of people openly express that they're happy he was beaten up and that view was shared on Twitter and message board and my YouTube video comment page. He even acknowledges this on his Twitter page:

@johncmayer And people DO want to see me hurt. That's what I've been reading over and over again. But it's cool. I'll be back 2 normal tomm.

And look at the way he insulted actress Kirstie Alley on Twitter just two hours ago:

@kirstiealley I'm 31 years old. You're 58. But it seems like you have the mental maturity of a 13 year old. Way to go! about 2 hours ago from web in reply to kirstiealley

And Hilton wonders why he gets all the bad Karma! It's not right that Molina hit him, but it's also very wrong that Hilton uses words as fists in part because its legal to do so, or so he thinks. In my view, this event is one more nail in the coffin of true free speech; a law will be passed at some point to curb this behavior. One can't go around pushing buttons just for kicks or for news.

Hilton's approach may have met its waterloo

For five years Hilton's built and cultivated an image as a blogger who picks on people to generate web traffic with the objective of then drawing paying sponsors, even calling himself the "Gossip Gangsta,"; this fight in Toronto was the classic example as Hilton was the aggressive player, verbally abusing Fergie and Wil.I.Am, and even stating in his meltdown video that there's no law against talking about someone in the fashion he's mastered.

That is true, but if Hilton keeps up "blog thug economics" he may spur a new law to curb such practices in the future. Recording artist John C Mayer has engaged in a lively "discussion" with Hilton on Twitter and while he's trying to get Hilton to clean up his act, Hilton's responses show he has no interest in doing so, but to be honest, Mayor's not really trying to calm him down either, because Mayor's unhappy Hilton made him his Monday target in his website, writing that he was "boring" his father on an outing for Father's Day.

Wow.

Perez Hilton: @johncmayer All I really care about in this world is doing right by my family and my dog, and sharing and listening to music.24 minutes ago from web in reply to johncmayer

John C. Mayor: @perezhilton because today, the fourth wall came crashing down. Mario, you are human. I call upon Twitter to be kind to you. #perezisokbyme17 minutes ago from web

John C. Mayor: @perezhilton now you sit down behind that Tandy computer and you hash out a Doogie diary. Be sure to pause, think, and keep typing.18 minutes ago from web

Perez Hilton: @johncmayer I'm not human! I'm a monster! Good night, John Mayer.14 minutes ago from web in reply to johncmayer

John C Mayor: @PerezHilton Good night Perez, you dumb shit. #perezisokbyme 13 minutes ago from web in reply to PerezHilton

Perhaps Hilton's unfortunate beatdown is a road to the end of this practice but given that people like to read about them, it may be the beginning of something new. Sadly, I think it's going to take someone losing their life before this circus is halted for good.

Blogger Perez Hilton's antics during an altercation with Wil.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas Monday morning has earned him a stern statement from The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). During that exchange, Hilton, who's Gay, called Wil.I.Am an anti-gay slur. GLAAD's calling for Hilton to apologize:

New York, NY, June 22, 2009 – The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) today issued the following statement in response to a video posted by celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, in which he made the following remarks about a confrontation with will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and members of the band’s entourage.

"And that is when I made the split-second decision - that I was gonna say what I thought was the worst possible thing that thug [will.i.am] would ever want to hear. As I was standing my ground - without being violent or physical which I would never do - I told him - and you know what? I don't need to respect you and you're a f**. You're gay and stop being such a f***ot."

His statement appears in this video:

"These are vulgar anti-gay slurs that feed a climate of hatred and intolerance toward our community," said Rashad Robinson, Senior Director of Media Programs at GLAAD. “For someone in our own community to use it to attack another person by saying that it is, quote, ‘The worst possible thing that thug would ever want to hear,’ is incredibly dangerous. It legitimizes use of a slur that is often linked to violence against our community. And it sends a message that it is OK to attempt to dehumanize people by exploiting anti-gay attitudes.”

“We have reached out to Hilton and asked him to apologize for promoting this anti-gay slur, and we would ask media outlets to avoid repetition of the slur in their coverage of this story.”

Reuters is reporting that Toronto police have charged Liborio Molina, the manager of the Black Eyed Peas, with assault.

“While not all the facts in this case are known, the violence that appears to have been committed against Perez Hilton is unacceptable and ought to be condemned in the strongest possible terms,” said Robinson.

Hilton got into a heated, verbally abusive argument first with Fergie, the popular singer with "The Peas" then with Black Eyed Peas' lead rapper Wil.I.Am early Monday morning. According to videos from both Wil.I.Am and Hilton, Hilton's verbal abuse led to his being beaten by what Wil.I.Am called "a fan" while Hilton said the attacker was the band's manager.

You can learn more with my initial video on this:

And more information's coming as the flow from Twitter is tremendous, but my estimate is it will subside by this time tomorrow unless someone from the Peas makes a new statement, Perez follows up, or another video surfaces.

This subject is now the fourth highest hashtag on Twitter, towering over Tehran; #iranelection remains at number one.

Is there a gay bar that we can go to with GaGa now that like has a balcony or some place to have fun but be safe?about 4 hours ago from Sidekick

Mission accomplished! I just got a picture with Taylor Lautner!!!! That one is for my fellow fangirls! Xoxo

But Wil.I.Am sent a text to a friend who then posted a photo of it on Twitter which read "What the hell would I be doing sockin Perez Hilton???"

So now it's a case of he-said, he-said. Hilton, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira, is known for being verbally abusive and in one case was physically assaulted but not for nothing; in that case at a party at the Playboy Mansion, Hilton never reported why he got a black-eye.

Hilton's also known for being an attention hound, so many Twitterers think this is just another ploy by Hilton to get attention that leads to traffic for his blog.

Later, Wil.I.Am encountered Hilton at another club and requested that he not treat the group in such a rude way as he did on his website. But rather than apologize, Hilton said "I don't respect you" to Wil.I.Am, who said "OK. That's cool." But then Hilton, who's Gay, called Wil.I.Am the "F-Word" but even then the lead lyricist for the Black Eyed Peas held his cool and backed off; but an unknown fan didn't and accordind to Wil.I.Am "got all up into him". So it was the fan that assaulted Hilton, not Wil.I.Am; if Wil.I.Am's story is accurate, Hilton lied about the incident.

My read on this is Hilton may have been drunk and a bit out of control of himself, which explains his behavior and the case of mistaken identity.

Hilton didn't stop tweeting. His last posts as of this writing said..

I won't be talking about this any further. It is in the hands of the authorities.22 minutes ago from web

Thank u all from the bottom of my heart for ur concern. The police are investigating the assault now. I did the right thing by reporting it.22 minutes ago from web

For his part Wil.I.Am said "It's all cool; it just got a little crazy."

http://www.zennie62.com - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/a... - After the news of Susan Boyle's admission to a mental clinic for evaluation, I just plain hit the ceiling. I'd followed the stories of Boyle's much-justified outbursts last week - "much-justified" because Boyle was reportedly deliberately harassed by a couple of evil journalists who set out to make her upset - and could not understand how the producers of the now-popular TV Show "Britain's Got Talent" (BGT) would not get protection for Boyle and shield her away from harm.

I then watched in horror as news outlets around the World put all the weight of the issue on her, writing she's "having a meltdown", "SuBo goes loco", or "flies off the handle all the time" or words to that effect, and figured that it was some elaborate PR stunt possibly developed by the BGT minder just to hype up the ratings to see what she would do during the finals, then cement the show's popularity because of the upset loss that was sure to occur since the call-in audience's vote would be effected by the news of her problems.

That's what happened. After the show, Boyle reportedly ran down a hallway screaming "I hate this show." Well I agree with Ms. Boyle 100 percent. The way BGT treated Boyle, and really a portion of the World handled her, says nothing good about our Western culture and everything bad about how we've "evolved" into the 21st Century.

A great video of an interview with Star Trek Director J.J. Abrams. He confirmed my earlier contention that the shorter dialog was reflective of "modern times" - not sure that's a good thing but I loved the movie.

Susan Boyle, who electrified audiences around the Internet world with her audition on the UK show "Britain's Got Talent" won the first of five finals rounds today, featuring 40 contestants who made "the cut" on Saturday.

This round featured Boyle, violinist Sue Son, the daring Darth Jackson (a combination of Michael Jackson and Darth Vader), young Natalie Okri , belly dancer Julia Naidenko, (who Telegraph.uk blogger Anna Pickard refered to as "Julia Havalottaconstanants", I'm serious), chainsaw artist Kevin James, and a dance duo called "Faces of Disco", as well as a 67-person dance group called "Diversity."

According to Pickard, who live-blogged tonight's event, Boyle sang at 9:33 PM in London and picked an Andrew Lloyd Webber song that Pickard described as "a musical that begins 'midnight ... doo doo dee doo doo evening'" which reads that it must be the song "Memory".

Pickard explains Boyle had a new hairdo and and "dyed and fitted" dress, but the best news to me is Simon Cowell apologized for the belittling way the judges addressed Boyle before she belted out her amazing rendition of "I Dream A Dream" from Les Miserable and shocked the World. If you didn't see Boyle's first performance, it's worth a review:

It's Not Over, Yet

The audience and judges picked Boyle, along with Diversity and over the performance of young Natalie Okri, who Pickard writes was "standing in the middle of a stage and silently weeping."

That gets eight of the final 40 out of the way. The BGT shows for the rest of the week feature the rest of the finalists. Who will win is still up in the air, with perfomers like Harmony and Shaheen Jafargholi yet to appear again.